Bruja

by Vladimir Duran

Zen watched her grandmother die in an insane asylum, screaming about spirits good and evil. She told herself the old woman was crazy...until she started seeing spirits herself. Now, in the middle of putting on a runway show at fashion week, she’s going to have to confront vicious models, hungry spirits and the mystery of who let them loose. Before the monsters spiral out of control and devour all of New York City, she’s going to have to embrace the madness and accept her family legacy. A spirit talker, a witch woman, a Bruja.



Zen reacted without thinking, reaching out to grab the woman before she could hit her head on something hard. And nearly screamed when she touched a fat grub on the way to the floor as the model fell on top of her.

The feeling of her skin crawling increased a thousand times over and made her want to vomit. The thing was there, it's legs touching her skin where Zen held the other woman up. She wanted to pull her arm away but it was pinned under Berchte's.

It looked at her and brought its head close to her arm, like it was sniffing her. And then it pulled its head back and crawled away, heading for the tent poles leading up to the canvas ceiling.

Other people came, someone screamed in shock. Then Berchte was being taken off her and Zen had room to breathe again. All around her there was confusion and talking. People laid the model out on the canvas floor of the tent and fanned her.

"What are you doing? Call an ambulance." Zen recognized the snap in her voice.

Someone went to do what she said and Zen had a moment to look around and really see and take stock. The spirits were everywhere. A couple of the models were clustered around Berchte but the rest were in sight over the heads of the people crouching on the floor. The spirits were clustered most tightly around them but everyone had at least one or two of the little fiends. Everyone but her.

And just like that Zen realized she believed. She wasn't going insane. The monsters were real and she was the only one who could see them.

61 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2016

About the author

Vladimir Duran is a man who loves a good story no matter what form it takes. He’s into everything from comics, manga and anime to the epic poets and classic cinema. A good story is a good story is a good story. Vladimir lives in New York City where he pretends to be a legal clerk when he would rather be writing. He spends his free time Drawing and Playing Mass Effect. He also likes to build magic systems based on classical philosophy.